THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
About a month ago I was given the opportunity to Interview two up and coming stars in the underground hip-hop scene, Sincere and Nima Fadavi. They came by the store, we went to the bar next door, and for the next hour and a half had a very in depth interview about their beliefs, ideals, goals, and overall view of hip-hop. I was also able to get a deeper understanding for who they are as people. I was also able to find out a lot about their upcoming album, “The Calm Before the Storm.” Because the interview was so long and in depth, I felt it was better to leave the conversation transcribed rather than do a write up. Here is that transcribed interview.
Paul B- What is your name and how did you get your alias?
Sincere- My name is Sincere and I got my name back in ‘97 or ’98, from my good friend Germs, or Germaine. I was in a group with him for a few years. He actually named me Sincere One first, but we eventually cut out the one, but it was to describe my style, to describe who I am as a person, and it just stuck.
P- It says in your bio that you’re from Watsonville. Do you still live in Watsonville or have you relocated?
S- I’m actually back and forth between Watsonville and the Bay Area. Right now I’m out in Berkeley staying with a few friends, just doing the back and forth thing, networking here in the bay area. But I go back cause I still have a lot of producers that I work with out in Watsonville too. I’m back and forth but all my of my stuff is in the bay right now, so yea, I guess technically I live in the bay.
P- Do you plan on fully relocating to the bay or always staying in Watsonville?
S- I mean I’m always about the grind, so I’m probably always going to be moving and chasing something out here. I came out here to work with a bigger tank of fish. So I’m out here just doing it like that, but probably eventually I will move down to LA, make it down there, maybe New York, I don’t know man, just bigger places and bigger things you know what I’m saying?
P- How old were you when you started listening to hip-hop? And when, and why, did you decide to start rhyming?
S- I started listening to hip-hop probably around the “36 Chambers” era, Wu-Tang, that was probably the first thing I ever picked up. I don’t even know when that was, early nineties? I don’t know, I just saw how powerful it was and how much I was influenced by the music and eventually I wanted to start doing that. I started writing little rhymes, not even to beats, just poetry kinds of things, and eventually just started recording by myself. Eventually I started showing my homies and it just progressed from there. But it was definitely the influence of the music and the influence it had on me, so I wanted to be able to invoke that.
P- Did you start with writing? Or did you start with ciphers and freestyles?
S- I started with writing. I can do the freestyle thing, I’ve always been into freestyles, especially back when I was younger, with freestyle battle contests and all that shit. I’ve always been versatile but I’m definitely more poetic and more of a writer for sure.
P- If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you now, and how has your style changed over the years and how you make your music?
S- I’m 26 now, it’s been about 10 years that I’ve been rapping, probably about five or six of actual solid grinding out. When I was younger I was on some straight kind of lash out, angry stuff. Last album I put out was about 2008, so this new record I’m doing with Nima Fadavi, I definitely look at as more grown folk or its not so much anger you know? A lot of my stuff was just angry, youngster type of stuff you know? The beats that I got from Nima for this album has definitely put me in a different style of writing, made me really think about my concepts a lot more, really made me take the time to flip concepts. We are almost finished with the project so I’m really excited to see how it ends up.
P- Yea man, the first single, “Calm Before the Storm,” came out really nice.
S- Thank you, man. You know shit is crazy right now with the economy and everything so I wanted to put something out there that was a little more up-tempo. It’s still about that raw shit and still about that pain that we’re going through right now, but really its like ten steps forward and no steps back. So that’s what we are trying to do with this album, a little perseverance.
P- You have a very unique vocal tone and style, did that just come naturally? Or was it something you worked on?
S- I don’t know man, I mean I have tapes of me when I was younger and my voice isn’t nearly as deep, I have smoked A LOT of blunts though, (Laughs), maybe that had something to do with it?
Nima Fadavi- I’ve smoked a lot of blunts in my life and my voice is still high as shit.
S- (Laughs) Then I don’t know man. They say the deeper your voice, the more you’ve been through. I’ve seen hell and back. Maybe that had something to do with it. I think I just got lucky, man.
P- Going back to what you said about having been through a lot, there is a definite theme and subject matter in your lyrics. What makes you choose this subject matter and not something else?
S- It’s my life. A lot of it is just ventilation and now that I’ve gotten older I’ve seen the power of it all. And I don’t want to say I’m on a more “worldly” tip but I’m talking about things that everyone is going through. And the rawness and stuff that I talk about is 100% the type of stuff that I’m on. It’s from my days of growing up. It’s just something that’s always been a part of me, and something I want to put out in my lyrics, I want people to know there are places like this, that are like the central coast. I’m out in the bay area a lot but I represent the central coast to the fullest. I just want people to take notice of that energy and that type of rawness.
P- So would you say that the biggest influence are things that you have experienced yourself, or do you also take from outside influences of things that you have no experienced yourself?
S- I think that as I’ve gotten older I’ve definitely taken from more of an outside influence of what is going on in the world. As you grow up you get more of an understanding of what is going on outside of yourself. And to be able to leave where I’m from, which not a lot of people get to experience, so me being able to do that has taken me out of one situation and put me in a place where I am really able to soak in what’s going on and really take the time to look at it. I don’t have to worry about as much and the things that I talked about on past records are not necessarily the things that I am going through now. So I believe it is a lot deeper and more poetic in a sense.
P- You talk a lot about the poetic tone of your music, do you feel that there has been a change in hip-hop as far as there being a difference poetically between hip-hop and rap? And do you feel that there is actually a difference between hip-hop and rap?
S- I mean when you hear a song like, “Stanky Leg,” or whatever, that’s not hip-hop you know what I mean? I mean I’m sure there are people that would say that is hip-hop is some form cause people are dancing or whatever, but I feel hip-hop should be used to make some kind of point. I’m not the person to say what’s hip-hop and what’s not, but more content is what I like. I mean I’m not much of a dancer. (Laughs)
P- You’re lyrical content is based a lot around your experiences growing up in Watsonville, which from reading your bio and the songs you have, is not the best or easiest place to grow up in. Do you feel that rhyming about these experiences perpetuates that lifestyle or do you feel that it helps it by bringing to light these kinds of conditions?
S- I would like to think that it helps people be more aware. I would like to think it helps people with their problems if they don’t have any one else to school them. I like to think it reaches the people who live there because we don’t have a lot of big rappers out there and I want them to know that I feel their situation, and that I know their situation. But with anything im sure it can be twisted, music is power, if it’s in the wrong hands it’s going to be used negatively or in the right hands it will be used positively. I want to think of it as a learning experience so that you don’t have to go through anything like that. And if you do go through these things, I want you to know that I do understand and do know what you are going through. I don’t put anything on blast, and I don’t promote gang violence, nor do I believe that my music is considered gangster rap though some people may think that it is. It’s just raw.
P- Your new album that is coming out is titled, “The Calm Before the Storm,” what is the significance of the name, and what kind of response are you hoping to receive from this album?
S- Calm before the storm is relevant to us just starting to bubble, the calm before the storm, and hopefully if everything goes well and the album does well, and people are feeling it, we can keep moving up and keep bringing the type of music we like to do. I hope that people see it as much more adult compared to my last few albums and that they see it as a lot more poetic.
P- What made you want to work with Nima Fadavi? And what can we expect from the album due to his influence?
S- Nima is definitely one of the hardest workers I have seen in the last few years. That’s how we kind of linked up, was ending up at the same studio right around the time he was doing rise the revolution type stuff and I was doing warlord stuff. It was way back in the day right as we were both coming up. We were always doing shows together. He is definitely a grinder, and he is a dope producer. We ended up actually living together a couple years ago. Us, and a couple of homies, rented a house, and pretty much ever since then we have been doing tracks together and making the same career moves with Ineffable Music Groups. We were eventually able to get in the studio together and decide to lay down tracks to get this album together. But the thing that I’ve always liked is that me and Nima both have patience, we aren’t trying to just throw together something, we are on the same level when it comes to waiting for something to get mixed and mastered properly. This is the first time everything is going to be 100% done, and I just knew it would be that way with Nima. And the other thing is that me and Nima are like night and day. Nima is a lot more chill and a lot more out there, so I think the way that we mixed up is really nice.
P- When is the album release date?
S- The release date hasn’t been decided yet but we are hoping to have it some time in spring. We will definitely have a party for the release, probably in a couple different cities. We keep pushing it back to make sure that it is perfect, we never set a definite release date, just the ones that we personally were hoping to make. It will be coming out on Ineffable Music Groups.
P- You helped to co-found that label correct? How did it come about? And do you feel that you needed to start your own label in order to get your music out there?
S- Definitely thing I needed to do that. In order to get your music out there you need to have a team of people, even if it’s only five people. It’s a very hard thing to do on your own. So I met up with a lot of like minded people and we wanted to put something together, so we started a group and we did a bunch of things, like I was in a group called The Warlords, we did that and we also started putting on a bunch of shows, and we did that for a while and just tried to figure out any way to promote our music. Nowadays you can’t just be a rapper, you have to be everything, promoter, artist, everything. No one would let us get on any shows so we had to do our own shows, and when that started catching on we were able to start Ineffable Music Groups for real.
P- Well thank you a lot for letting me interview you, but now Nima it is your turn. So you go by Nima Fadavi, is that your alias or your actual name?
N- Nima Fadavi is my actual name. (Laughs). I get asked that all the time actually.
P- (Laughs) I just wanted to get that squared away. So what would you say it was that attracted you to working with Sincere?
N- We’d both been good friends for a really long time but had always been doing our thing separately. We were always around each other in the music scene and were always kicking it but it really started when I started kicking him some beats to see what he would do with them and I really liked what he ended up doing with them. We had always kind of mentioned doing an album but it just finally solidified and we finally did it.
P- Did you make the beats on this album with the intention of fitting his style? Or did you have an album already in mind for these beats and you gave them to him?
N- It was a little bit of both. A lot of the time I would be making a beat with a sample that I thought would really work for Sincere and then flip it in a way that really fit him. And sometimes, I just have a catalogue of beats, so sometimes he will just be over and we will be chilling or smoking or something and I will just play him something and he will say, “Oh I want that one,” and it will be something that I didn’t even imagine him liking. I think what I really like about it is that his skill and his style is not necessarily something that most people see me working with. But I am a really big fan of emcees with his style, kind of like gangster rap, and I would say that it is something that I really like listening to but have no actually worked with. I also like that I am able to bring him out of his element and his style that most people know him for having.
P- I was reading your bio and I didn’t notice it saying where you are from. Where are you actually from?
N- I don’t really put that out there too much. (Laughs)
P- Oh, well if you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine.
N- (Laughs) No, no, no, it’s fine it’s just not something I am trying to throw out there. It’s cause I’m not actually from on specific place. I was born in Virginia, pretty close to Virginia Beach, but I moved and went to high school in Mountain View, CA, and then moved to Santa Cruz, CA, when I was about 19 years old, lived in Santa Cruz for a long time, and then I moved to Berkeley. So I’m kind of all throughout the Bay Area. All of my friends from those places will say that I am from those places, but generally I just say that I am from the Bay Area.
P- How old were you when you started listening to hip-hop and what made you want to start listening to beats?
N- I don’t really remember, I was really young when I got into hip-hop. I want to say that it was in middle school when I got into non-commercial hip-hop. It was back when I started listening to people like Dilated Peoples and Cali Agents. I was always into graffiti and break dancing, I was in a graffiti crew and a break dancing crew when I was growing up, and I was playing piano during all of this, and that had me kind of grow into making beats in high school. At first making beats was just a fun thing to do with friends and eventually as I got older and went to Jr. College, I started to realize what I wanted to do and ended up taking a recording class, and that made me realize that I wanted to do it as my career.
P- How did you make the change from commercialized hip-hop to more underground stuff?
N- Skateboarding. I was really big on skateboarding and I had a friend who was sponsored by DC back then, he was always making these tapes of music that we would skate to, and one of those tapes was Cali Agents, and another was a Beat Junkies tape, and another one was a Dilated Peoples tape. And from there I started snowboarding a lot and that got me into Swollen Members, and Living Legends, and Hieroglyphics cause they were always in the snowboard videos that I was watching.
P- So did you start initially making music because of hip-hop or did piano have a lot to do with it?
N- Hip-Hop. I mean I guess it was piano, I was 6 years old when I started piano, so back then it was a lot of classical piano, but it wasn’t something that I was drastically into. So I started off with classical piano as a child and as I got older I got really into hip-hop and actually making beats and music.
P- How old are you now and would you say that your style of making beats is different?
N- I’m 24 now, and I’ve always been on some hip-hop, make it as real and raw as possible kind of stuff. I kind of picked a style that I really enjoyed making and stuck with it and over the years I have tried to perfect that craft and style. There are a lot of people that are all over the place and kind of just make random things, or they choose to keep jumping on to whatever is hot at the moment. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with that, but rather than half-assing a bunch of things and a bunch of styles, I just stuck with the sample and MPC style of beats. So over the years rather than getting bored with that I just perfected it.
P- So is it safe to say you started with MPC or was it tables??
N- I started with MPC. I don’t actually DJ that much. I got thrown into DJing because one of my good friends, Pep Love, needed a DJ, and being a producer and working on a lot of production for him, I just sort of took over that role. I’ve worn many hats (laughs). And I DJ for Sin now, and that is because of all my time DJing for Pep. But I am definitely a producer first and a DJ second.
P- So what would you say your biggest influence is when it comes to making a beat? Do you take from outside influence of is it something that you feel at the time that you try to put into a beat?
N- I think that a lot of it is a feeling that I have at the time. It also depends a lot on the sample that I am using at the time. A lot of it is a sample that I have and I flip it a certain way that I feel at the time, and then I will wake up the next day and not like it as much, and think that it sounds off, and then flip it again and really feel it then. So I think a lot of it has to do with how I’m feeling at the time. It also has to do a lot with what I’m listening to at the time. Maybe I will be listening to a lot of up beat kinds of music and I will have that influence on me at the time.
P- With a lot of the beats that I have heard from you, there is definitely a sound that you can tell is yours. Is that something that came naturally or did you work on it?
N- It kind of came naturally, and I just went with it, and then I started to try to perfect that. There’s a lot of stuff that I like but that I’m not necessarily going to try it because it’s not really my style. So I just stuck with the style that I did best and the style that I had the most fun doing.
P- You mentioned that you like gangster rap as well as liking non-commercial hip-hop, when you approach a beat do you plan on making it for a certain genre? Or do you plan on making for a certain artist such as Sincere or Pep Love?
N- Sometimes yes, and then sometimes no. I have this problem of making a beat and not really taking into consideration the rapper. I make a beat and I try to make it just sound tight to me, and I don’t think of like a certain rapper rapping over it. Like two days ago I was making a beat and recording a new track for Pep on his new album and was like, “Man, I really like this beat, but you just went way too crazy with it.” (Laughs.) I think that happens quite a bit. So I just try to do what I do best and have fun with it, and then I will play it for whoever I think would sound best over it.
P- When I noticed in your bio I noticed that you have worked with a lot of people, such as a lot of the members of Hieroglyphics. Who, besides Sincere, is your favorite person to work with and why?
N- Besides Sincere I would definitely have to say Sunspot Jonz from Living Legends. (Laughs.) He’s a character man, that’s for sure. He would be a good stand up comedian. He’s very loud and out there, and he just does not care. I would say that if he came in here right now he would already be talking to half the people in the bar, banging on the bar trying to get a free drink from the bartender. Just making a scene, but it’s all in fun. He is definitely a good dude to be around. He’s one of those people that when you first meet him he is already your best friend. He’s one of those people that are definitely good to be in the studio with.
P- Do you have any solo albums of just instrumental beats? Or have you only done stuff with other people?
N- I’ve only done stuff with other people, but I will have an instrumental album out in April called, “The Instrumental files.” It’s done but I’m just waiting on the design to be finished. But that will also be under Ineffable Music Groups.
P- How has the response been to the music you’ve done in the past? And what do you think the response will be to your music that is coming out in the future?
N- I think that the response from the work I have done with other people in the past has been really good but I’m definitely very unknown. And with Sincere I am really looking forward to finding out what people are going to think because it is such a different style than I am used to. But I have a really good feeling that it will be well received.
P- How did you get associated with Ineffable Music Groups and the Hieroglyphics crew?
N- I was actually in a group in Santa Cruz and they were putting on shows and putting me and my old group on shows, and as my old group started doing less and less, I just went on the path of doing stuff solo and since I was still friends with IMG it was a natural progression to join up with them. My connection with Hieroglyphics came from my old group doing a lot of shows with Pep Love. After seeing them around so much I kept giving them beat CDs and after being around them so much we became friends. And one time Pep ended up calling me and asked me to come over to his place, so I went there with my friend Igor, and Pep ended up playing me this track that he had recorded to one of the beats I had given him a long time ago, which luckily was available. (Laughs) And that ended up being the song, “Changes,” and Pep ended up giving that one away for free on Inauguration Day. And after that, just after being around him so much, we ended up becoming really close friends.
P- So what are your goals you hope to achieve with your music?
N- Honestly, I just want to make a living doing what I love to do. I think it’s very important to set goals, both short-term and long-term, but for me it’s nothing crazy. I just want to live in a decent house and make a decent living doing what I love to do and be stress free.
P- Well, I think you are going to be able to obtain that goal. Thank you very much for giving me the time to interview you and Sincere. I hope to hear from you guys soon and be sure to keep us up to date on what is going on with your album release.
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